Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


nzlady

12 posts

Geek


#56514 14-Jan-2010 20:44
Send private message

Hey GeekZone,

I wanted to know if there was a way to recover information from a computer. I remember a few years ago someone told me that even if you delete something, its still in the hard drive. The thing one of my relatives has a computer but unfortunately alot of files like music and photos are now missing. Shes looked everywhere on the computer (well as far as her knowledge about computers takes her) and cant find anything. She thinks someone might have deleted them all and cleard the Bin.

Is there a way to recover them without having to spend money to take it in somewhere professionally?

Thanks in advance for your help.


Create new topic
HiJinx
253 posts

Ultimate Geek

Geekstore

  #290156 14-Jan-2010 23:43
Send private message

GetDataBack from http://www.runtime.org did it for me. It's not free though, but they do have a free trial.




Shaun Fisher - www.geekstore.co.nz

E: shaun[at]geekstore[dot]co[dot]nz
P: 0800894508  F: 0800897451



dontpanic42
1574 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 11


  #290160 15-Jan-2010 00:10
Send private message

Recuva - http://www.piriform.com/recuva

Great piece of software. Best of all, it's free.
Give it a go and see what it comes up with.

xpd

xpd
Geek of Coastguard
14115 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4574

Retired Mod
ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #290183 15-Jan-2010 08:19
Send private message

+1 for Recuva

Found stuff that the commercial options didnt for me.




XPD / Gavin

 

LinkTree

 

 

 




wazzageek
1095 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 108

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #290190 15-Jan-2010 08:40
Send private message

Just on note on recovering deleted files - when you delete something, generally the file is marked as deleted and you cannot see it anymore. The reason the tools mentioned above can recover these files is due to this mechanism.

You computer will make a decision when it needs to save something about where it saves that information - files that have been marked as deleted can be used as space for saving new data.

I mention this as as time goes by, more and more of the deleted files are overwritten, therefore your chances of retrieving deleted files is as soon as you've noticed they're been deleted.

Also note that if a "secure" delete is performed, you may be able to "see" the file to recover it but the information within the file will be gone.

The commercial outfits that will attempt to recover lost data - and they can genuinely recover a lot of lost data - are very expensive (think figures in the thousand $ range onwards.)

Good luck with getting as much as possible back - it's also time to suggest an investment in an external drive (or 2!) and start a backup regime.

Create new topic








Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.